LET IT aLL sTART hEREFor Catholics who care...

I like to ponder koans. Because the effort to “solve” the riddle is intended to exhaust the analytic intellect and the egoistic will, readying the mind for a spiritual awakening. It gives one the opportunity to hear the voice of the Divine and a chance forenlightenment. I need that.

Here is my attempt at a koan : The mass shooting that occurred in San Bernadino,California, where 14 people were senselessly murdered is a sin; the refusal of our law makers to really do something to stop gun violence is a sin; the headline of the New York Daily News, the following day, that spit in the face of God and slapped the face ofthe Faithful? 14 Dead in California Mass Shooting: God Isn’t Fixing This… is a sin . Which is most sinful?

There is no right answer to the koan: Sin is sin .

“ It is any action that harms the relationship we have with God and/or another person. It is choosing to act in away that pulls us away from God.” Contemplating these transgressions allowedme to consider the origin of the sin committed in California and the origin of the sin that occurs, day after day, with the reluctance of our legislators to write appropriate laws prohibiting excessive manufacturing of firearms. To do so wouldresult in encouraging citizens to personally take responsibility for gun pollution in our country.

It has become obvious to me, that this type of violence is happening with more frequency because too many Americans really don’t know Christ, they don’t get His message and they don’t understand power of prayer.

As I readied myself to wrestle with the hand that penned the statement about God by means of this blog, I went to Mass and prayerfully asked the Holy Spirit to fill me with the right words to correct the offense that was committed yesterday with the wrong four words: God Isn’t Fixing This.

And God answered my prayers, lending me His words in today’s Gospel reading: “Jesus replied: ‘Let it be done for you according to your faith.’ ”(Matthew 9: 29)

Saint Augustine of Hippo said: “Bad times, hard times…this is what people keep saying; but let us live well and times shall be good. We are the times. Such as We are, such are the times.” It is just that simple.

President Kennedy once told our Nation: “Here on earth God’s work must surely be our own.” The work has been clearly defined by the Son of God. The problem is too few Americans want to do it.

Jesus once asked: “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” Sadly enough I must admit, He will not find enough of it and that iswhy we are killing each other.